> The research topic isn’t blockchain related, isn’t based on buzzwords, isn’t Twitter driven, etc. Well, one of the criteria appears to be "the potential to p

> The research topic isn’t blockchain related, isn’t based on buzzwords, isn’t Twitter driven, etc. Well, one of the criteria appears to be "the potential to positively impact Ethereum", so it's hardly unrelated. > The Ethereum foundation is using their funds to finance open research in a lot of different domains, you can check https://esp.ethereum.foundation/en/grants/ https://esp.ethereum.foundation/en/grants/. So why should I believe they're more able to choose worthwhile projects to finance than any other foundation? As your link says, the "ESP team will work with you to refine and rescope your proposal as needed, then evaluate the final proposal with input from technical advisors before a funding decision is made". There are lots of foundations that finance research projects in whatever areas they're interested in, based on the funding decisions made by a panel/committee/team/whatever-you-like-to-call-it. What makes this one different/better?